Good morning, 

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Thursday, October 3, 2019
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• Central Texas’ U.S. Rep. Chip Roy is the latest official to speak out against Austin’s mayor for the city’s controversial new homeless camping law. As Jacob Asmussen reports, the Austin ordinance allows homeless people to camp, sit, and lie down in public spaces across the city. Roy says the city’s policy “undermines security, harms private property of our citizens, hurts commerce, and endangers those it purports to help.”
      
• Meanwhile, Gov. Greg Abbott said yesterday if Austin doesn’t act soon, he will use the power of the state to stop the homeless camping problem in the state’s capital city. Brandon Waltens reports Abbott has given the city until Nov. 1 to “demonstrate consequential improvement in the Austin homelessness crisis and the danger it poses to the health and safety of the public.”
      
• “If meaningful reforms are not implemented by then, I will direct every applicable state agency to act to fulfill my responsibility to protect the health and safety of Texans in your jurisdiction.” – Gov. Abbott
        
• The president of the “Texas Municipal League” – a taxpayer-funded lobbying group – has filed paperwork to run in the 2020 Democratic primary for the opportunity to challenge Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in the general election. Midland City Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem John B. Love III registered his campaign with the Federal Election Commission. Matt Stringer has the details.
      
• The Texas Municipal League lobbies against taxpayers on behalf of city government officials – using taxpayer funds to do so. Legislation designed to ban taxpayer-funded lobbying passed the Texas Senate this spring but was killed in the Texas House.
   
• Former U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions is making a bid to return to Congress. Rather than seek re-election to his Dallas-centered seat that was lost in 2018, Sessions is seeking the GOP nomination in the Waco seat made open by the retirement of Bill Flores. Brandon Waltens has the details.

• In the first of a three-part commentary series, Jim Loose, Tim Lambert, and Jim Pikl explore how changes in family law have deeply (and negatively) impacted American culture.
      
• Arlington ISD wants voters to approve $966 million in new bonds on top of its $1.1 billion in existing debt. Erin Anderson has the story.
   
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